Rochester Institute of Technology - Techmila / Ramikin Yearbook (Rochester, NY)

Page 7 text:

toppdmM the miracle of human interaction... The Reality Orientation has to become less formal and more responsive to the student's needs. The major problems we had were the result of a conflict in purposes with the Administration, commented Karen Gates, co-chairman of Student Orientation Seventy (SOS). As Karen Gates and Maria Raione collaborated in planning the program they found many obstacles barring them from their goals. I think that the orientation committee viewed itself as being a committee to try to benefit the incoming student... doing the Institute a favor by working for them. The Institute thought the committee was there to work for the Institute and do what was best for the Institute, Gates said. We want SOS to continue; we wanted it to go throughout the quarter..., said Rainone. The co-chairmen wanted to eliminate some of the testing and shorten the program by two days. ... they just wouldn't buy the idea of orientation going on into the quarter. Student Orientation Seventy began well before 8:00 a.m., on that misty Thursday, with the arrival of the first freshmen. Under the control of Scott MacLeod, Moving In Chairman, the SOS workers began the enormous task of getting the right people into the right room with the right baggage. Under the direction of John Galto, Public Relations Chairman, the new students and their families were offered tours of the campus throughout the day. Andy Klahr, Social Chairman, coordinated many events of which the block party of Thursday evening was one. The event provided many with the chance to enjoy their new found freedom. 3 hoppmAorlb

Page 6 text:

Student Orientation Seventy September Thl 17 24 The Dream Not unlike the opening of 2001, September dawns anew each school year. The feelings of anticipation, the mixture of fear and excitement, the deepening sense of wonder all herald the beginning of a new world, a new age. New students come to RIT bringing with them questions that reflect perceptions of a world known only to them: what is this place like? How will I fit in here? What will it give me, teach me, require of me? Will I find friends? Will I be happy? Will it hurt me too much? Will it be what I want it to be? This questioning continues in the minds of those who are returning once again to RIT: what will happen to me this year? Will it be better? Will it really matter that I have been here? What difference will it make to RIT or to me? Faculty and administration await anxiously, knowing these questions will again challenge us to the depths of our beings, hoping against hope that we have moved the Institute a bit closer to all our expectations. Our minds too, are full of questions: what will these students be like? After Kent State, can they ever be the same again? What can we say that has any meaning, makes any sense? Can we, can this institution, open ourselves anew to persons of 2 infinite variety? Can we give them the freedom to learn, to change, to experiment, to question, to resist, to protest, to live as they choose? Can we give them the deep joy of knowing other persons, of sharing themselves? What do we have to offer them? What gives us the audacity to think it is important for them to be here at all? We greet each other cautiously, with questions, afraid to reveal ourselves too soon. Before the year is out we will know each other all too well. We will be disappointed sometimes, happily surprised at others; we will disagree over many things and find ourselves in pleasant accord on others; we will suffer much together, as change and growth seem to require, but we will also see the face of satisfaction and fulfillment. We will emerge from the year greatly changed and hopefully a bit wiser; we will experience that miracle of human interaction, that combination of communication and concern that turns strangers into friends. But can the Institute itself, the vehicle for our coming together and the ongoing framework for each new dawning age, also change? Where will it go? How can we influence and direct it? How will it heed our voices, our goals, our dreams? As we are ever changing, so RIT must change with us. The passage through a new world, the search for answers, is never easy, but always exciting. The ways we will grow are not seen now, but will unfold as the year goes on. Somehow we will come together; somehow we will form a community; somehow we will move toward another new dawn. by Michal Stan McKemie

Page 8 text:

4